Tag: marine biology

On second day under Twinning Program, we explored the campus of Bijni college and collected botanical and water samples. the samples were of different kinds of leaves, flowers and water samples. We prepared slides of the collected samples and observed them under fold-scope. We observed different kind of stomata, pollen, spirogyra and mosquito larvae. We…

Hello everyone! I’ve been meaning to follow up on my Hopkins Marine Station post, so I’ll limit the words and get right to some videos that I’m excited about, focusing on sea snail eggs. Here’s a look at the sample. The left image is of many snail egg casings clustered together (also note the gorgeous…

I had the pleasure of visiting the Hopkins Marine Station in Pacific Grove, California this past week. The space was absolutely teeming with fascinating creatures large and small. In this post, I’ll share a story focusing on Patiria miniata and follow-up later with some other posts of data and drawings stemming from this trip soon after….

As part of our passion for changing perspectives with Foldscopes and marine education at Big Blue Network, we returned for the 2nd Danjugan Island Environment Education Program. This time we had nearly 50 kids participating in our Foldscope introduction class! We have devised a very simple zooplankton trap out of some pieces of plastic plumbing…

Big Blue Network recently introduced Foldscopes and gave two classes on seagrass and algae to the 9th grade class at the Zamboanguita Science High School on Negros Oriental, Philippines, at the invitation of Ma’am Luzviminda Abejero, head science teacher. Based on our experiences working with these classes, we have developed general guides for discovering seagrasses…

The waves washed up a lot of seagrass and algae on Bulabog Beach, Boracay, Philippines on a recent stormy day. I collected a few samples to prepare for marine biology classes with Foldscopes. I first examined the specimens for hitchhikers like this juvenile sea urchin and returned them to the sea. There were two seagrasses…

Recently, I had an amazing opportunity to try out my brand new Foldscope that I got through the Kickstarter campaign. I was on holiday near XaiXai in Mozambique and took my Foldscope to the beach to see what I could find. Two different cnidarian species had washed up on the beach: blue bottles (also known…

Hi Everyone, I just received my Foldscopes in the Philippines. I will be working with educators and other non-profits to bring Foldscopes to kids here. My focus is on fishing communities so I am grateful for all of the ideas I find in the Microcosmos for marine-related subjects and low/no-cost projects. I look forward to…

In my ongoing quest to explore marine microfauna, I recently observed rotifers under a Foldscope. Like many motile marine invertebrates, rotifers use cilia to maneuver through the water column. They also use these cilia to feed by generating currents. The anterior end of the animal is in the top right of the pictures, and there…

Aiptasia are unusual beasts. To a naive eye, these palm-like anemone could easily be confused for plants. In fact, aquarists often refer to them as weeds, owing to their ability to rapidly grow and multiply in seawater aquaria. These creatures are most definitely animals. However, they do serve as a home for photosynthetic algae (dinoflagellates). In…

It’s incredible to think about that most multicellular life forms – be it a human or a whale; start from a single cell. Just one single cell. We are more than 30 trillion cells; but all of them can be traced bag to a single cell. How remarkable is that!! Trying to wrap my head…